The instruments of an orchestra are like the paints on an artist’s palette: which colours are chosen and how they are combined is vital to the mood and character of the finished work. The drama of the stories and the characters that inhabit them in Tchaikovsky’s ballets The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty are ideal for description through instrumental colour as much as through harmony, rhythm and melody. And Tchaikovsky’s use of orchestral ‘colours’ plays a big part in making these scores so exciting and engaging.

The Arabian Dance in The Nutcracker is a perfect example of how instrumentation makes musical ideas clear. Its Orientalist fantasy is conjured up through several elements that each have their own tonal quality. A repeating, rhythmic bass begins with low strings of cellos and violas, later with muted double basses. A first melody twists its way up like rising smoke. This is played by muted violins with ‘much expression’ to sound smooth and sensuous. A second languorous melody, written for a solo oboe, floats down through a series of gracious curves. A little punctuating phrase for predominantly low woodwind sound of clarinets with cor anglais decorates the changes of section. Flute chords and a tambourine rhythm add more decoration around these central elements. The contrast of timbres and pitches makes each part of the music stand out on its own while still complementing the others.

Different timbres can also evoke specific characters. In Act III of The Sleeping Beauty, Puss-in-Boots and the White Cat are two of the fairytale guests. They dance a pas de deux in which their identity is described in sound. The opening phrase is a musical version of a cats ‘miaow’, with the reedy quality of oboes and bassoons imitating the penetrating animal tone. Tremolo strings that follow (with a little pizzicato explosion at the start of the sound) tell us that nervous suspense is in the air. In fact, the pas de deux is a stylized chase by one cat of another, with feline jumps, twitching whiskers and ears in the choreography synchronized with the music.

A more sustained quality of motion is conveyed in the Dance of the Snowflakes in The Nutcracker. At the start, the orchestration depicts lightness and flurry: swift breaths of flutes and piccolo are echoed by a shimmer of cellos, intensifying in frequency and length as the snowflakes appears in greater quantities. With the waltz fully under way, a sustained melody is made distinctive through unexpected children’s voices, not singing as characters but as another quality of sound in its own right.

The use of the full orchestra is one of the thrills of both these ballet scores, and even here Tchaikovsky’s lets us hear individuality too. The Overture to The Nutcracker is a big effect on a small scale. Upper strings are used and woodwind are pitched high in their ranges – no cellos or double basses, and no blaring trombones. A ringing triangle emphasizes the high frequencies. It’s a full orchestra – but a toy one to match the theme and scale of this Christmas Eve adventure.

The Prelude to The Sleeping Beauty is of an entirely different order. It’s as full as you like from the start: a dramatic attention-grabbing theme, interspersed with strident brass. The harps are the only instruments not playing in the opening bars – the sound is too loud and aggressive for their delicate, ringing quality. Yet in the second section, harp arpeggios sweep magically over the repeating low notes of the strings to introduce the flowing Lilac Fairy theme on flutes and clarinets. As this section builds, all of the violins, cellos and violas play the main theme together – a glorious, soaring sound where Tchaikovsky uses as a whole orchestral group as though it was just one big solo. You’d think nothing could top that, but Tchaikovsky finds a way: trumpets! And the Prelude concludes with a glorious fanfare over shimmering chords of strings, woodwind and harps. It’s another huge orchestral sound – and so different from the one that began the Prelude.

Whether on the scale of just a single instrumental line, a small group or the entire orchestra, Tchaikovsky knew how to use all the potential of orchestral sounds to animate the drama, direct our ears and – with these great ballet scores – complement our eyes.

The production is staged with generous philanthropic support from Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet, Hans and Julia Rausing, Lindsay and Sarah Tomlinson and The Royal Opera House Endowment Fund. The production is sponsored by Van Cleef & Arpels. Original production (2006) made possible byThe Linbury Trust, Sir Simon and Lady Robertson and Marina Hobson OBE.

Handel may have been born in Halle but he was a Londoner through and through. The composer moved to the city in 1713 and remained here until his death in 1759. Over almost fifty years he transformed London’s experience of music, be it through his operas, his English oratorios (a genre he invented), his celebratory anthems or his charitable performances. He made his mark, and then some – and nearly three hundred years later we can still revisit some of the places he would have known. Let’s walk.

The Theatre Royal – now known as the Royal Opera House – was built by John Rich (previously at Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre down the road) in 1732. Handel first worked at Rich’s theatre in 1734, taking refuge after a falling-out with the managers at King’s Theatre Haymarket (down the road in the other direction). Over the next 23 years the Theatre Royal hosted the premieres of more than twenty Handel operas and oratorios, including such big hitters as Ariodante, Alcina, Judas Maccabeus, Solomon and Jephtha. The theatre has changed a lot since Handel’s time – the first theatre burnt down in 1808, and its replacement was also destroyed by fire, in 1856. The current theatre was opened in 1858 and became the Royal Opera House in 1892.

Yes, you read that correctly. True, the National Gallery only opened in 1838, nearly eighty years after Handel’s death. But were he still around he might have found the frontage uncannily familiar. The columns in the National Gallery’s portico were in fact salvaged from Cannons – the magnificent country house in Edgware, built by James Brydges, first Duke of Chandos and one of Handel’s earliest supporters on his move to England. Handel was resident composer in Cannons 1717–8 and the house saw the premieres of his Acis and Galatea, as well as the Chandos Anthems. Brydges spared no expense with Cannons, but by his death his fortunes had turned and his successors were forced to raze the mansion a mere 33 years after it was built. Numerous architectural splendours were hawked off – including the columns from the house’s colonnade, which now adorn the National Gallery.

What we now know as Her Majesty’s Theatre is in fact one of the oldest theatre sites in the city. John Vanbrugh built the first theatre here in 1705 as the Queen’s Theatre. Handel’s association with the theatre began just a few years later in 1710, very early in his London career, when he provided incidental music for Ben Johnson’s The Alchemist. The King’s Theatre (as it became in 1714) witnessed the first flourishing of Handel’s operatic brilliance (including the premieres of Rinaldo, Radamisto, Floridante, Giulio Cesare, Rodelinda etc etc) and he was co-manager of the theatre 1729–34. In 1734 Handel shifted shop to Covent Garden, but the break was by no means absolute and the theatre saw numerous further premieres later in Handel’s life. As with Covent Garden, the current theatre isn’t one Handel would recognize: Vanbrugh’s theatre burned down in 1789, and its successor suffered the same fate in 1867. The current theatre dates from 1868 and has been showing The Phantom of the Opera for the last 30 years.

London wouldn’t be London without a bit of royalty. As the leading composer of his day, Handel was called on more than once or twice to provide suitably magisterial music – including ‘Zadok the Priest’, one of four coronation anthems written to celebrate the coronation of George II in Westminster Abbey. The piece is now not only an integral part of British pomp and circumstance but is also beloved by football fans as the theme for the UEFA Champions League. Handel also wrote numerous anthems for the Chapels Royal in St James’s Palace, both for the Inigo Jones-built Queen’s Chapel on Marlborough Road and the Chapel Royal within the palace itself – in the headlines most recently as the site of the christening of Prince George.

St George’s, Hanover Square

Handel wasn’t the only one moving to London in the first part of the 18th century, and in 1711 parliament passed a decree requiring 50 more churches to be built to serve the city’s growing population. One of these was St George’s, Hanover Square, just round the corner from where Handel would make his home in Brook Street. The church was consecrated in 1725 and Handel was an active member of the parish from then on until his death, with his contributions including – as you’d expect – providing his expertise on the church’s choice of organ and organists. Handel is probably the church’s most famous worshipper, although its Mayfair location has meant it has had its fair share of celebrity, including in 1886 hosting Theodore Roosevelt’s marriage to Edith Kermit Carow.

Handel called this London townhouse home from 1723 until his death. After a varied career and a brief spell in disrepair, the house was bought up by the Handel House Trust in 2000, and now hosts a museum dedicated to its illustrious first owner. There must be something about Brook Street – in 1968 Jimi Hendrix bought a flat in the house next door.

Jamila Gavin’s novel Coram Boy has made new generations familiar with Handel’s charitable work with the Foundling Hospital, established to give a home to abandoned children. The charity was founded in 1739 and moved to a sizeable new building in Bloomsbury (then on the outskirts of London) in 1745. The day after a performance of Handel’s Messiah there in 1750, the composer was made a governor of the charity, and maintained a close link to its work until his death. There’s now nothing left of the buildings Handel would have known, as the hospital was demolished in the 1920s. Nevertheless, some its lands were retained as Coram’s Fields, a seven-acre park exclusively for children and young people, while the Foundling Museum provides a lasting tribute to the charity’s work.

St Paul’s Cathedral, one of London’s most iconic landmarks, was a relative novelty in Handel’s time, as Christopher Wren’s magnificent Baroque building was only officially opened in 1711. Then as now it was a site for very public services, including in 1713 a ceremony to celebrate the peace-bringing Treaty of Utrecht, for which Handel provided a Te Deum and a Jubilate.

Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre was originally a real tennis court; its conversion in 1660 gave great joy to Samuel Pepys, who called it England’s ‘finest playhouse’. In due course the theatre was knocked down and rebuilt as a new theatre, which in 1728 hosted the premiere of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera – itself something of a send-up of Handel’s Italian operas at the King’s Theatre. The surprise success of The Beggar’s Opera was such that the theatre’s manager, one John Rich, had enough capital to up sticks and build the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden. Several Handel works were subsequently staged at Lincoln’s Inn, including the premiere of the ode L’allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato in 1740. There’s nothing left to see of the theatre, which was demolished in 1848 – although you might pop into the (not Handel-related but still interesting) Hunterian Museum on the same site.

Much of Georgian London lives on – so which Handel pilgrimage sites would you add?

Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) has a score that fizzes with musical brilliance, from Figaro’s famous entrance aria ‘Largo al factotum’ to the frenzy of the Act I finale, when the five principal voices all pile on top of each other.

Werther's excellent libretto, written by Edouard Blau and Paul Milliet, distills Goethe’s Romantic masterpiece and intensifies Goethe’s depiction of two passionate people, each intent on hurting the other. The score displays Massenet’s gift for melody, with the ‘Clair de lune’, ‘Lied d’Ossian’ and Charlotte’s ‘Prière’ now some of the composer's most loved music. This broadcast offers another chance to hear two of the finest performances at Covent Garden last Season from Joyce DiDonato and Vittorio Grigòlo.

Verdi’s Il trovatore is probably best known for its ‘gypsy’ music: the Anvil Chorus, Azucena’s ‘Stride la vampa’ and Manrico’s heroic ‘Di quella pira’ are key examples. But Verdi wrote wonderful music for all four of his leads and the score boasts a host of thrilling ensembles and chorus numbers including the Count's aristocratic aria ‘Il balen del suo sorriso’ and Leonora’s prayer.

Bellini’s bel canto masterpiece Norma is perhaps most acclaimed as a vehicle for the lead soprano – key arias include ‘Casta diva’, Norma’s Act I hymn to the chaste moon; and Act II’s ‘Dormono entrambi’, as she contemplates the unthinkable act of killing her children. But the opera’s dramatic potency rests in its breathtaking ensembles, most strikingly in Norma’s duets with Pollione and Adalgisa, the Act I trio ‘Vanne, sì: mi lascia, indegno’ and the blistering Act II finale.

Mozart’s final collaboration with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte followed Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni and exemplifies the heights opera can reach when the skills of composer and librettist are perfectly matched. But Così’s reception has always been more complex than that of the other Mozart/Da Ponte operas, with the opera variously considered immoral, unfinished, cruel or simply odd since its 1790 premiere. Now finally accepted as one of Mozart’s masterpieces, it is celebrated as much for its nuanced depiction of love as for its glorious music.

Red velvet, stucco cherubs and a whole lot of gilt: the main stage of the Royal Opera House has offered a glamorous home to opera and ballet since 1856. But why stop there? Over the years the ROH has moonlighted as a venue for pantomimes, ice-skating and glitzy award ceremonies – and most recently as a destination for leading pop artists. Pet Shop Boys take over the main stage for four shows this summer, becoming the latest in a starry roll-call of ROH performers.

The ROH’s relatively short history of playing host to pop started in December 2001, with Björk. The gig was part of her world tour for the album Vespertine, and included new songs with previous hits. Included in Björk’s ensemble were electronic duo Matmos, an Icelandic choir, an onstage harpist and a full orchestra in the pit. Responses to this new venture were mixed: The Guardian saw cynical manoeuvres on both sides, the ROH in ‘search for a younger clientele’ and the pop world stuck in an ‘ongoing obsession with conservatism’. But there’s no denying the power of Björk’s performance.

There was a lot less controversy around Elton John’s ROH show the following year, a gala performance to raise funds for, and awareness of, his new scholarship fund for his alma mater the Royal Academy of Music. He and his band joined with a large orchestra and choir drawn from current RAM students, in a set of 11 songs arranged on massive scale. The show was broadcast by the BBC, presenting to a wide audience the argument that the worlds of pop and classical are in some ways closely linked.

In 2004, Motörhead became the first band to venture beyond the main auditorium, in characteristically eardrum-busting performance in the Floral Hall (now named the Paul Hamlyn Hall) – a lofty, light-filled structure usually home to the ROH champagne bar. Two years later, Snow Patrol followed (somewhat more sedately) in their footsteps with a ‘secret gig’ held as part of their Eyes Open world tour. The idea was to offer a free, spontaneous gig at an unusual venue: enter the Floral Hall once more. The set included three new songs, including Chasing Cars, and was later broadcast on Channel 4.

Later that year choreographer Wayne McGregor pushing the envelope further, creating the ballet Chroma to an arrangement of White Stripes songs by Divine Comedy keyboardist Joby Talbot (now a veteran ballet composer). The ballet’s uproarious acclaim paved the way for McGregor’s appointment as The Royal Ballet’s Resident Choreographer. In 2012 McGregor made pop even more central to his work in Carbon Life, a collaboration with Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow that saw performers including Boy George and Alison Mosshart of The Kills join Royal Ballet dancers on stage.

In recent years the ROH’s previously quiet summer period has become its regular pop slot. Sting swooped by in 2007, not to sing but to act in a show celebrating Robert and Clara Schumann. In 2008 Damon Albarn of Blur brought his stage extravaganza Monkey: Journey to the West, based on a Tang Dynasty manuscript. Rufus Wainwright was joined by father Loudon and sisters Martha and Lucy for a five-night residency in 2011 that included both his Judy Garland tribute and his opera Prima Donna. In 2013 Antony and the Johnsons presented Swanlights, originally commissioned by the New York Museum of Modern Art and accompanied here by the Britten Sinfonia. So it’s never going to be your usual gig – but then it is the Royal Opera House.

Boris is back - and conveniently for us, compiling this list in date order means the Royal Opera House Prom comes out on top. With a cast led by bass-baritone Bryn Terfel and conducted by Antonio Pappano, this concert performance of Mussorgsky’s operatic masterpiece tells the tragic tale of a Russian Tsar plagued by guilt. The semi-staged performance is preceded by a workshop from the BBC Singers, where aspiring performers can join in with some of the opera’s choruses.

Fresh from conducting Verdi’s epic Il trovatoreon the Covent Garden stage, Gianandrea Noseda is at the helm of – if possible – an even larger masterpiece. Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis was composed over four years towards the end of the composer’s life and is considered to be is one of his supreme achievements. With a stellar cast of singers including soprano Camilla Nylund, mezzo-soprano Birgit Remmert, tenor Stuart Skelton, bass Hanno Müller-Brachmann, the Hallé Choir, Manchester Chamber Choir and BBC Philharmonic, the effect is sure to be breathtaking.

A full day of Wagner may feel relatively short for those attuned to his lengthy operas – but for newcomers to this composer’s work, 11 July should serve as an introduction. Prom 10 at 11am showcases the 'Ride of the Valkyries' from Die Walküre in a family-friendly performance, alongside other classical staples from the BBC’s Ten Pieces series – music designed to open up the world of classical music to children and young people. The evening’s Prom 11 includes the final scene from Die Walküre, alongside Tippett’s contemplative oratorio, A Child of Our Time.

There’s something of a Rossini focus at this year’s BBC Proms, and who better to celebrate the 200th anniversary of The Barber of Seville than our friends at Glyndebourne? Danielle de Niese leads the cast as Rosina, a young girl eager to escape the elderly Bartolo's affection, with comic consequences. There’s also a pre-concert talk for those wanting to learn more about the role and politics of hair-styling in 18th- and 19th-century Europe (!) with Alun Withey and historian Kathryn Hughes.

A suitably Shakespearean recommendation in the 400th anniversary of his death. This performance takes regular Prommers away from the familiar surroundings of the Royal Albert Hall to an altogether smaller performance space: the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe. Expect English Baroque music in spades, with music by Purcell, Blow, Locke and Draghi, as well as incidental music for Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Tenor Gregory Kunde stars alongside mezzo-soprano Alice Coote and the Hallé in Mahler’s synthesis of song and symphony, Das Lied von der Erde, conducted byMark Elder. Continuing the Season’s focus on cello music, (kicking off on the First Night with a digital light projection from Sol Gabetta), Leonard Elschenbroich will perform a London premiere: Colin Matthews’s Berceuse for Dresden, which takes inspiration from the eight bells of the Dresden church at which it was premiered.

A dream team of singers assemble for a concert performance of Janáček’s tragic satire, The Makropulos Affair, performed under the baton of Czech conductorJiří Běhlohlávek. Finnish soprano Karita Mattila — acclaimed for her portrayal of the opera’s heroine at New York’s Metropolitan Opera — leads the cast.

A rare treat to hear music from Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio. Despite his prolific musical output, the composer appeared to struggle with the overture, eventually writing four versions. This version (Leonore No. 2)is the first attempt and is thought to have been composed for the 1805 premiere – but nowadays the final version, Leonore No. 1, much lighter in style and with fresh musical material, is often heard in performance. This Prom also features András Schiff playing the Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, 'Emperor', and the Symphony No. 7, performed by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and conducted by Herbert Blomstedt.

The conductor affectionately dubbed ‘The Dude’ is back, conducting the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra in their first Proms appearance since 2011. In this Olympic year, the Proms is celebrating South American music and musicians with a premiere of Venezuelan composer Paul Desenne’s Hipnosis mariposa, alongside Villa-Lobos’s effervescent orchestral tribute to J. S. Bach, Bachianas Brasileiras No 2. For ballet fans, the performance ends with two dizzying works by Ravel: La Valse, originally conceived as a ballet but now frequently heard as a concert work, and the Suite No. 2 from Daphnis and Chloe.

There’s much more to the Last Night than tub-thumping Elgar and flag-waving pomp (although if that’s your cup of tea, you won’t be disappointed). Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez is the star soloist for a diverse evening of music, including 'Una furtiva lagrima’ from Donizetti’sL'elisir d'amore, 'Ah ! mes amis' from La fille du regiment, as well as a generous helping of lush English song. Jette Parker Young ArtistLauren Fagan is also set to perform in a jewel in the evening’s programme, Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music, scored for 16 soloists, alongside the BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sakari Oramo. Don your black tie and get queuing!

What are you most looking forward to seeing at this year’s BBC Proms?
Let us know via the comments below.

In this clip they discuss what it is to be a singing artist, via a unique analogy for the human voice - that of a glass.

'A glass is not a mirror - you do not see yourself in it', says Dame Janet. 'You look through it at the audience or at the responsibility which you have to the composer and librettist. You have to keep the glass clean and have to be able to see out to that purpose which is bigger than you are. You've also got to allow people to look in.'

As the USA celebrates Independence Day 2016, we're reminiscing about a pivotal moment in the world of Major League Baseball (and opera, of course) as star mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato took to the stage to perform The Star-Spangled Banner during the 2014 World Series.

Joyce, an avid baseball fan, was initially asked to perform during the sixth game of the series, but was forced to turn the request down due to a prior commitment - teaching a middle school music masterclass.

Her vocal social media following, bolstered by fans of the Kansas City Royals baseball team, created a petition, using the hashtag #LetJoyceSing, calling for her to be invited to perform during the seventh game, in front of her home crowd.

Born in Lanark in Scotland, his father, a minister, was practising the piano down in the church when his mother went in to labour.

‘It was in the days before mobile phones, so my mum just had to wait for him to come back. Which he did – eventually. But I think afterwards they thought we should probably get a piano for the house!’

After watching his father play, he started to improvise at home and began lessons at the age of seven. He focused on music in his later years at the Douglas Academy in Milngavie, but as a young boy playing in the local ceilidh band, he had no idea the road would lead him to the Royal Opera House.

‘Once the police had to be called to the village hall because it got so crazy. We got shut down,’ he grins. It sounds like a fun memory, and it’s evident that Colin gets a real buzz from hearing music being enjoyed by an audience.

‘I like when things have a bit of a bite to them. I like when an audience feels like they can join in with what they’re hearing,’ he says.

‘The good thing about playing for ballet is that you play the piano all the time,’ he says. ‘You are constantly working on your craft. For me the piano is a practical thing. It’s my skill. I tried to read about it and it just didn’t work. I just wanted to play.’

The pace Colin has worked at, often called upon six days a week, has been an intensive training course. Playing for ballet is uniquely challenging – with pianists required to quickly master the entirety of lengthy and complex scores. Colin explains, ‘There’s an added layer of playing alongside dancers because ‘it takes time to see the different casts and to feel each artist individually.’ To be a good ballet accompanist he says, ‘You have to grow with their movement – it’s not an easy job.’

With classes beginning every day at 10.30am and studio rehearsals lasting well into the evening, the density of playing time has given Colin excellent practice to refine his craft. ‘Before my time as a Young Artist, my improvising skills were limited. But now I don’t have a choice and after intensive coaching from the inspirational Nicki Williamson, my improvisation is so much more expansive, eclectic and creative. That’s a big creative leap forward for me.’

‘I think the opera house is a magical place – it’s all here. I’ve worked on my classical technique, performed in concerts, worked with singers and dancers throughout the rehearsal process and experimented with different styles I hadn’t had the chance to look at before.’

Despite his remarkable training, Colin doesn’t like to rank music in any sort of hierarchy.

‘I don’t believe in the idea that some forms of music are superior to others. I think people can sometimes be put off by classical music because they feel they need some prior knowledge. But you don’t. I think if you encourage people to accept things just as they are, then you’ll encourage people to come in.’

Colin leaves the Programme this summer armed with an impressive repertory and skills that have left him with the prospect of playing for class and working on productions for other companies around the country. He’d also like to collaborate with artists from other genres to produce his own eclectic sound – but he’s not worried about stepping away from the classical world.

‘I’ve had a fantastic time here and I’d love to come back. People will always want to listen to the music of Giselle and La bohème because it’s just fantastic music and if it’s good – it will last.’